Children of Spanish-speaking families may be more likely to endure hospital errors due to language barriers, a new study shows.
The study, published in Pediatrics, focuses on one pediatric hospital in the Pacific Northwest. But the issue is bigger than that, write Adam Cohen, MD, MPH, and colleagues.
"Language barriers may contribute to medical errors by impeding patient-provider communication," they write. "One particularly vulnerable group is immigrant children and the children of immigrant parents, the fastest growing segment of the U.S. child population."
Cohen is on staff at the CDC. He worked on the study while at the University of Washington and Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle.